This invention relates to a carrier for carrying film-accommodating cartridges into a photoprinting device.
In order to print images on a film onto a photosensitive material in a photoprinting device, the film is first taken out of its cartridge (or patrone), and fed in a straight line by a carrier device while reading image data with a scanner unit provided in the path. The film is then printed after adjusting the exposure conditions of the printing/exposure means based on the image data.
If a large number of films have to be printed continuously, the operating efficiency will be low if they were manually fed one by one. Thus, many films were fed into the printing/exposure means after taking them out of the cartridges and splicing them together into a single web.
But even with this method, the efficiency is not high enough because a rather long time is required to splice many films together.
Also, because many films are connected together in a single web, the step of reading image data with the scanner and the step of printing images on films with the printing/exposure means interfere with each other. In other words, reading the data is possible only after printing is finished and printing is discontinued while data are being read.
In one proposed arrangement, a loop guide is provided between the printing/exposure means and the scanner so that they are operable independently of each other. With this arrangement, it is possible to temporarily store a web of films in a loop with the loop guide after reading their image data, and then print these films continuously with the printing/exposure means.
This method is, however, not applicable to the case where films are processed without taking them out of the cartridges. When processing films without taking them out of the cartridges, there are problems. In order to solve these problems, a photoprinting/processing device of a rotary table type has been proposed.
In the arrangement in which a plurality of films are spliced together, films have to be separated from their patrones. Thus, after printing, it is necessary to cut the films to strips of a suitable length each carrying several frames and to put each strip in a separate film holder before returning them to customers. Such work is extremely troublesome and time-consuming.
Thus, a photoprinting/processing device having a rotary table provided between the scanner and the printing/exposure means has been proposed. In this arrangement, a plurality of cartridges are brought onto the rotary table so that the scanner can read image data on one film while another film is being printed by the printing/exposure means without separating films from the cartridges.
Apart from this rotary table type photoprinting/processing device, a photoprinting device of the type having a cartridge housing for supplying a plurality of cartridges containing films for continuous printing.
In this device, the cartridge housing is used to supply films directly into the printing device from the cartridges. But it would also be possible to use this cartridge housing to supply films into the rotary table type photoprinting device.
But this arrangement requires a carrier device for supplying cartridges from the cartridge housing to the rotary table type printing device. Such a carrier device has to be capable of supplying cartridges discharged from the cartridge housing onto the table of the photoprinting device.
An object of this invention is to provide a carrier device which can receive film-containing cartridges supplied from a lateral direction and send them continuously into a photoprinting device, and which can return the cartridges back into the original position after the films have been printed and wound into the respective cartridges.
Another object is to provide a carrier device which operates basically mechanically.